


Shifted

by potionsmaster



Series: Dogs of War [2]
Category: Mass Effect, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Werewolves Are Known, Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Custody Arrangements, Divorce, Domestic, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Omegaverse, Post-Divorce, Shapeshifting, Werewolves, learning, newbie werewolf
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:40:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28231074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/potionsmaster/pseuds/potionsmaster
Summary: Shepard survived Torfan and being turned into a shifter in order to save his life, but the cost was almost too high. He doesn't know if he'll ever accept his new situation and settle into it, if he lost his career, if his new ex-wife will let him see his son again, or if he'll even survive the next time he shifts. At least his mentor and originator is patient with him.Actually, if he thinks about it, Alenko is a goddamn saint for all that Shepard throws at him.
Relationships: Kaidan Alenko & Male Shepard, eventual mshenko
Series: Dogs of War [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1994353
Comments: 17
Kudos: 17





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Angsty, but there’s some sweet and good bits in it. Definitely lighter fare than the last one

**_Shifted,_ ** by potionsmaster

Rating: M for language, implied situations, mentions of past violence in the first story

* * *

  
  
  


“Dad…?”

“Kaidan? Hi! How’re you?”

“I’m… alright, I guess. I-”

“-I can get your mom, if you want. I know she’d love to hear from you.”

“No, Dad, that’s… maybe later? I kinda… wanted to… talk to… _you.”_

The pause on the other end of the call was quickly glossed over.

“Oh! Yeah, sure! That’d be… nice. What’s up?”

“We just got back from a mission, and I… I wanted a, um. Sanity check.”

His father paused again, voice more measured with caution when he spoke again. “Oh?”

“It, uh. It was rough.”

“I’m sorry, son. Are you… ok?”

Kaidan got up and started pacing in front of his couch. “Yeah, I am. For the moment, anyway. I… Dad, I’m scared.”

“Kaede? What happened? Do we need to make a trip?” He felt a surge of love at his father’s immediate protectiveness of him.

“I-I dunno, I… I don’t think there’s much to be done? I don’t know if I made a mistake or not.” He sighed heavily. 

“Are you in trouble?”

“Not yet. But I probably will be.”

“Kaidan…” Rustling over the phone hurt his ear and he winced, drawing back from it a little. “Sorry, had to leave the room so your mother wouldn’t… there we go. Ah, is this, um. Like Gagarin Station?”

“Not quite. But it might be just as bad?”

“What do you mean?”

“I…” It was hard to form the words. “I, uh… I. _Turned_ someone.”

The silence was deafening.

“You… what?” His father’s voice was faint with disbelief. “On _purpose?”_

“...yeah.” He couldn’t bring himself to do anything other than whisper.

“But… but _why?_ How-Kaidan, I-”

-”I know!”

“Tell me what happened,” his father sighed. “As much as you can.”

“This human, he, ah. Has a kid, and he was hurt on the field. Badly. Like, ‘drowning in his own blood’ bad, y’know? I heard his last conversation with his son, he promised he’d come back, that nothing would get him. I couldn’t just _leave_ him, Dad…” The words came tumbling out of his mouth. “I did what I had to to save him.”

“So what exactly did you do?” The incredulity of the question stung.

“...tore him up further so he’d get exposed.” He was numb, trying to block the memories of Shepard’s broken, limp body under his teeth and claws. “Thank the moon it worked. He survived. He’s in the hospital now.”

Another sigh gusted over the phone at him and he plopped himself on the couch, tired of pacing. “Well. There is _that_ , I suppose. Has the brass made any moves yet?”

“My CO is under review board. As far as I know, they haven’t made any motion towards me yet. But… I think it’s coming. Depends on how benevolent they feel; the whole mission was an absolute cluster fuck.” 

“Sounds like. How’s he doing?”

“My CO? She’s holding up ok, as far as I know. I’ll know more later; I have a feeling they’re going to try to pin her with some stuff that was really higher up the chain. We make convenient scapegoats, though.”

“Best of luck to her in that case, but _no_ , silly. Your new, uh. Ward.”

“Oh.” His gut twisted at that. “Shepard’s… as good as he can be? I think? As soon as we hit Arcturus, he was rushed to the hospital and admitted. They’ve got him slated for a surgery or two to clean up the stuff shifting couldn’t fix.”

“I see. And how are _you_ doing in all of this?” 

“I’m…” He blew out a sharp breath, curling in on himself on the couch cushions. “I don’t regret what I did. He’s alive. He gets to see his family again. That’s the most important thing. I hope… I hope they see it the way _I_ did."

“Mm. Mmhm.” Kaidan could practically see his father nodding thoughtfully along. “Seems the lesson stuck.”

“What lesson?”

“That even the right choices and actions have consequences.”

  
  



	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The road to recovery is a rocky path

**_Shifted,_ **by potionsmaster

Rating: M for language, implied situations, mentions of past violence in the first story

* * *

Kaidan was coming back from the cafeteria in the hospital when he first saw them. A blonde woman and a little boy with slightly darker hair, walking down the hall, closed in on themselves and peering waspishly at the room numbers. They looked vaguely familiar, but he didn’t really trouble himself with it until they came closer and the boy’s startlingly blue, beautiful eyes locked with his and the little family’s muted scent washed over him through the rest of the antiseptic smell of the wing they were in.

_ Shepard. _

More to the point, Shepard’s wife and son. Amie and Eli, if he remembered correctly, and he was certain he did. A thread of anxiety worked its way into his gut as he thought back to  exactly _why_ he remembered them. The last communication Shepard had had with his family was a vid chat in the dayroom on the  _ Jakarta _ right before they dropped boots on Torfan and it had been less than amicable where Amie was concerned. From what he had gathered from the new shifter between bouts of consciousness, Shepard sympathized with his wife that he wasn’t there more often because of deployment, and understood she was lonely and she wasn’t able to find much in the way of work on Arcturus that would give her the hours she needed for Eli, not to mention she felt trapped in the somewhat tight quarters the Alliance had housed them in. Kaidan wasn’t quite sure what she was expecting, though; space stations weren’t known for sprawling suburbs regardless of if they were military or not, and add in the military factor, it was a bit like stacking sardine cans. 

On Shepard’s end, he was more than a little lost on what to do about any of it. He’d tried shorter deployments, but when he was around more, Amie seemed frustrated and closed off, complaining about wanting more room and needing a bigger budget to run the household. So he’d started to cut his leave short and take more assignments, deploy more often to try to get promoted, but then they were right back in the first area of complaint where she told her husband he was a workaholic and needed to be around more.

It was enough tail chasing to make Kaidan want to chew it off in frustration; he didn’t blame the omega for being fed up with it all. 

_ That _ was also something he wasn’t really sure how to bring up… the secondary sex designation. He‘d about dropped his teeth to the dirt on Torfan when Mark emerged from his first shift as an utterly massive, silvery white  _ omega _ , of all things. If anything, he would have guessed the tall, muscle-bound human would have been an alpha, like him; the man simply oozed it from his very core. Kaidan had a feeling if Mark had been the only human to do PT with an all alpha shifter unit, nobody would be able to tell the difference until they got up close to scent him. Even Nessa had been incredulous about it initially, but they hadn’t had much of an opportunity to speak about it since then. She currently was under a review board for their actions on Torfan; she’d been the commander for all the shifter units on the ground, like Mark had been for the human detail.

That was a problem for a different day, as his mother would say, and he wasn’t going to shed any fur over it until he needed to. He wouldn’t even know where to begin, anyway; it wasn’t exactly something he could just bust out with in conversation. He debated going back to the cafeteria to give Mark’s family some privacy until the woman cautiously approached him anyway.

“Um, excuse me… pardon-uh, do you know where room 413 is...?”

“Yeah, um, it’s right over here. To your left.” He nodded to the door on his right with a half-smile. “Looking for Shepard?”

She looked startled and pulled Eli’s hand closer to her, staring at him for a moment. “Yes… Lt. Mark Shepard. He’s my husband; I was told he’d arrived a couple days ago and was injured. Today seemed like it’d been enough time for him to recoup enough to have visitors, and little man here was hoping to see him.” She nodded towards the little boy. “I dunno if that’s such a good idea, though. Given what the doc said, it sounds like he’s in rough shape. I don’t know if it’s appropriate for him to see him like that; I didn’t want to take him immediately because oh god, what if all the machines and tubes and things give him  _ nightmares- _ I’m sorry, who are you, again?” Amie interrupted herself with a little shake of her head, brow furrowed over her dusty green eyes. They reminded Kaidan of sunlight through trees or a grassy field on a hazy, hot summer day.

“Lt. Kaidan Alenko. Sorry, I… I’ve been keeping tabs on him; I was on the ground with him, stayed with him when they brought him in, and-”

The blonde woman grabbed his hand and pumped it vigorously up and down and he was once again struck at just how awkward he was at the human greeting. 

“-Oh my gosh,  _ thank _ you for doing that!”

“Oh! Uh...you’re-you’re welcome,” he stuttered, tilting his head to the side as he watched their hands. “It’s really no bother, I-”

“-No, no,” she sighed as she dropped her grasp on him and tossed her hair over her shoulder, glancing agitatedly at the door. “It needs to be said.” She worried her bottom lip between her teeth a moment, then continued. “I really don’t want to take Eli in to see him if he’s still banged up, you know? ” 

Kaidan nodded. “For what it’s worth, he really  _ isn’t _ in terrible shape. I dunno how much the doctors told you, but just so you know what to expect, his eyelids are still swollen, the left side of his face is scarred pretty bad-” she clapped her hands over Eli’s ears and glared at him- “u-um, his… eyes are… well, they currently glow red because of the cybernetics.” 

The poor woman’s jaw dropped at that. “They… they  _ glow? Red?” _

He nodded, letting his face fold into a sympathetic expression. “It’ll fade! From what the doc says, anyway. I promise, it’s not that bad. He’s not bloody, just a little bruised when it’s all said and done. Even his scars aren’t all that, ah. ‘Fresh’ looking. They’re closed. Just… still…  _ new.” _

A scowl flitted across her face at that. “From being a werewolf now,” she muttered. “At least, that’s what the doctor said.” Eli glanced up at his mother, a frightened look on his face. His heart melted at that; the boy must’ve been a dead ringer for what his father probably looked like at a similar age.

“Yes. From being a werewolf now. That.” Kaidan counted to ten in his head and let it go; he rationalized that she was upset and he already knew she didn’t have the best opinion of shifters to begin with. Hopefully this would be the start of a new understanding she would have of their culture and she and Mark would be able to work through everything. The niggling worry in the back of his head tried to push forward again about Shepard being an omega; he didn’t know how to even begin to approach what the implications of that would be with a human mate and a human family during Shepard’s cycles. But that was something to concentrate on later. He knelt down to be eye level with Eli, tilting his head to the side and holding his hand palm up to the boy as to not be intimidating.

“Hey there…” he said softly. “My name’s Kaidan. Your daddy is a very brave man. You should be proud of him.” The boy nodded, worry sliding off his face as he concentrated on the man in front of him. Kaidan inhaled slowly and deliberately, trying to get a read on him. It seemed the anxiety was reducing out of the boy. Human scents were always a bit muddy in comparison to other shifters, but that was alright. He could get along well enough with it.

“Actually, uh. Do you… mind? Watching him for a minute?” she asked. “That way I can go in and see for myself. Wouldn’t want him to get any _more_ nightmares.” She ruffled the boy’s hair in her fingers.

Kaidan glanced up, surprised. “Sure! Uh… I don’t mind at all.”

She nodded distractedly, patting the boy on the shoulder. “Stay here. Mommy’s going to go talk to Daddy for a few, ok? Be a good boy for Lt. Alenko. Listen to what he says.” The little boy nodded vigorously. 

“I should tell you, though he’s-”

Amie didn’t give him a second glance as she disappeared into the room.

“-restrained as a precaution,” he finished in a helpless whisper. Eli’s small voice brought him back to the present.

“Did you fight the bad guys with Daddy?” Kaidan felt a grin split his face.

“Yeah! Yeah, I did,” he said. “And I was there when he got hurt. But I… treated his wounds and stayed with him until we were extracted, and-” fuck, he was awkward. “-uh. I-I guess you could say I saved him,” he finished lamely. Eli looked at him, blue eyes big and wide.

“Whoa… that’s pretty cool,” he said, wonderment in his small voice.

“I guess. Most important thing is he wanted to be able to see you again,” Kaidan smiled at him, keeping his head tilted to the side as he searched the little boy’s face. It was pretty nifty to see all the ways he looked like his father; the eyes definitely had it, framed with long, black lashes, the slant of his nose, the set of his jaw, his micro-expressions... even his ears looked like a copy of Shepard’s. “So… nightmares, huh? I used to get nightmares when I was little, too.”

Eli furrowed his brow, so much like his father when Shepard concentrated, and stared Kaidan boldly in the eyes. The alpha had to bite back a chuckle; had the boy been a shifter pup, he would have flopped over on his side to play, let him ‘win’ the dominance challenge, but he didn’t think Eli would quite know what to do with that, so he simply grinned again and let his hand drop, forearm resting on his bent knee.

“Yeah?”

“Mmhm.”

“Do you still get them now?”

“Sometimes.”

“Does Daddy?”

“Ah, he might! I dunno, it’s… not something me and him ever talked about, really.” As of the moment, he knew by proxy that Mark wasn’t dreaming at all from the mind link they apparently shared, though how much of it was from drugs and sedation and how much of it was trauma he didn’t know. Kaidan was fully expecting dreams and nightmares to start for the omega again once he healed a bit more and started processing the trauma for real. He made another mental note to contact his mother and ask if she’d heard of anything like it before; in his admittedly limited experience, no other shifter he was aware of ever had this literal direct connection to another pack member. His own suspicion was it had something to do with him physically being the one to flip Shepard. Majority of shifters were born instead of flipped, as humans (and the majority of the shifters he’d encountered) considered the act of doing it manslaughter. Even if the unlucky person survived the transformation from human to shifter, their old life was effectively dead and over, and the only thing preventing it from being a murder charge outright was the ‘victim’ was still technically alive. He was waiting on bated breath to see what was going to happen in their case. 

“Oh. He never told  _ me _ if he did, either. Maybe he’ll tell Mom.” The boy lapsed into silence, looking at the generic painting on the walls in the hall and sighing in boredom. Kaidan slowly got up from his crouch and looked at it, too. It was an abstract done in soft colors that he supposed were soothing in a vague manner if he thought about it. 

“Do you like this one?”

“I dunno. It looks like clouds, but not really? Maybe they’re stripey clouds because they’re really zebra clouds. And someone ran a fork through ‘em. Like frosting. I’m hungry. Can I get a snack?”

Kaidan huffed in amusement as he studied the painting, trying to see it through a child’s eyes. He supposed he could see where Eli’s idea came from, marveling at how he never would have thought of it that way himself. “Ah, I don’t have anything on me. Sorry. Maybe your mom has some with her? She should be back soon.”

He winced; a flash of anger, irritation and defensiveness went through him and he could only assume the meeting between Amie and Shepard wasn’t going as well as he’d hoped. His heart ached for the omega; more than anything, he needed his family strong and supportive around him and it didn’t seem like Shepard was going to get it. He sent a brief thought of calm and the painting he was looking at back and was rewarded with a spike of irritation and an almost questioning thought back about the painting. He suppressed a snort and went back to ignoring the roil of emotions coming from the other shifter.

Just then the door opened, causing himself and Eli to startle, and Amie stomped out. She shut the door deliberately with a soft click, and rubbed her temples. He could practically smell the agitation coming off her in waves. After a moment, she gathered herself and put on a brilliant, empty smile and came towards him, hand outstretched for her son. 

“Thank you  _ so much _ for watching him for a minute; I’m glad I went first. I don’t think it’d be a good idea for you to see him like this, bud. Daddy agrees; he’s still got a lot of… tubes and things hooked up to him.” Eli grabbed her hand and buried his face in her thigh as she stuck out her other hand towards Kaidan again.

“But I wanna  _ see him, Moooommmm…”  _ the boy whined, stamping his foot. Amie pursed her lips at that and Kaidan briefly shook her hand again.

“No worries; I didn’t mind at all,” Kaidan replied. “We were fine. Looked at the zebra clouds.” 

“Zebra clouds…?” she asked, cocking her head to the side and following his gesture to the painting on the wall. “Oh! Yes, that… makes sense now. Sorry, I’m a little distracted.”

“Understandable,” he sympathized. “There’s a lot going on right now.”

“You got  _ that _ right,” she chuckled under her breath, glancing down at Eli still clinging to her leg. “I’m sorry, but… how do you know Mark, specifically? I don’t think I’ve ever heard about you before.” 

“I was the one who, uh… saved him. I was the field medic.”

“Oh, thank goodness. Did you shoot the monster that did it to him?” 

Kaidan fought to keep his face blank as he felt his spine stiffen.

“No.”

“No? I thought you said you saved him?” Her gaze hardened as she straightened her back, too, eyes boring into his. No wonder Eli had no compunctions about staring him dead in the eyes, he noted in mild amusement. He felt Shepard’s frustration and shame for wanting the alpha’s presence in the room filter in the back of his mind and it only added to his own agitation with Amie.

“I _did,”_ he replied tersely. “His injuries were fatal, he was drowning in his own _blood._ It was me; I did what I had to in order to save him. So he could come home to _you_ two.”

She yanked Eli behind her, eyes wide in horror.

_ “You’re _ a werewolf??”

He nodded, bracing himself for it.

“Stay away from us! God, how can they let you walk around here? You might infect someone else…” She rummaged in her bag and came out with a bottle of hand sanitizer, applying it on herself and Eli. “I can’t be _ lieve _ you…”

Kaidan glanced at the little boy and his heart damn near broke at the look of fear blooming on the little boy’s face.

“You hurt Daddy…?” he asked in a small voice, clinging to his mother’s leg. Kaidan knelt down again, tilting his head to the side with what he hoped was a soothing, sympathetic look, holding a hand out palm up. 

“No! Not… exactly,” he started, “He was already very badly hurt and-”

“-Yes, Eli. He hurt Daddy and turned him into a monster. Just like him.” Amie spat the words as she tugged on Eli’s arm and started dragging him away. Kaidan had absolutely no idea how to respond to that.

“But when can I  _ see _ him?” the boy whined, struggling and reaching out towards the door. “Daddy!”

_ “Later,” _ his mother snapped. “Mommy has a few things she has to do first.”

Kaidan’s heart bled for the little boy as he watched them hustle away down the hall. What an awful thing to be told. Another flash of upset not-quite-loneliness mixed with exhaustion washed over him and he exhaled slowly, entering the room. Shepard’s bed was raised in the sitting position, his pinched and tired face almost as pale as the sheets but for the swollen bruising around his eyelids and the pink, angry scars spider-webbing around his left eye down his cheek. The omega perked up at the door opening, anxious hope flittering from him only to have him drop his head back to the pillows and wrists relax against the thick, padded cuffs attached to the bed rails. 

“So…” the omega greeted him, exhausted.

“So.” 

Kaidan blew out a slow breath through his nose as he pulled a chair up to the side of the medical bed and rested his elbows on the edge of the thin padding. Shepard’s eyes were dull and unseeing as he rolled his head towards Kaidan, nostrils flaring. The alpha moved his arm closer to the man so his wrist was closer to Shepard’s face, and the tension visibly drained out of him.

“That… wasn’t exactly the way I’d hoped it would go,” Shepard sighed, eyes drifting closed as his breathing evened out, breathing deep. Kaidan felt the omega calm the more he let the alpha’s scent wash over him and let himself relax a bit as well, enjoying the proximity of a pack member he hadn’t had since the last time he’d been home at the orchard. ‘War packs’ weren’t true packs in the traditional sense of the unit; they were transient things with members being transferred in and out as the brass saw fit based on the mission parameters and for the most part, there were no dominance issues within the chain of command unless there was an omega around that wasn’t on suppressants for whatever reason, or there was a particularly finicky alpha in the unit. Kaidan wasn’t sure if it was a gender issue or what, but it seemed there were very few omegas serving in the line of duty. Most were in non-combatant roles. The biggest question now was once Shepard was aware of his new status, would he continue on in active combat duty? He couldn’t very easily picture the large man requesting to be moved to a different role, though if he wasn’t able to be medically cleared, it was a moot point anyway.

“Yeah, I… got that impression, heh.” Kaidan gave him a half-grin. “I’m sure I experienced the  _ light _ version in the hallway.”

Shepard cracked a swollen eye open at that, raising an eyebrow. “Do what, now?”

“I ran into her in the hallway. Wasn’t sure if she told you or not. Got to meet Eli, though!” he said brightly. “Cute kid.” The omega opened his other eye and gave a tired scowl.

“You’re deflectin’.” Shepard’s voice was flat and tired. “What did she do this time? I  _ am _ sorry, whatever she said. She grew up somewhat, uh. Sheltered.”

“Oh, you don’t have to make excuses or apologies for her. I’m… unfortunately used to it.” Kaidan toyed with the pillowcase absentmindedly and Mark tipped his head towards his wrist again, nostrils flaring as he inhaled deeply. He didn’t think the other shifter was even aware he was doing it. “She, um. Backed up when she discovered I was a shifter, wasn’t nearly as pleasant as she initially had been. Stuff like that. Like I said, I’m used to it.”

Shepard sighed, eyes falling shut again. Annoyance briefly flitted on his face and through Kaidan’s mind at the omega’s wrists being stopped short by the cuffs from the unconscious movement he’d made as he squirmed in the bed to get comfortable. Kaidan stood up and adjusted his pillow behind his head, leaning over Mark before settling back down in his chair.

“You shouldn’t  _ have _ to be used to it,” the omega replied, somewhat testily. “It don’t make it right she acts that way, or that anybody does, and I’m still sorry you had to deal with it. Thanks, by the way. For the, uh. Pillow.”

“Oh, you’re welcome. And again, you don’t have to apologize. I appreciate the sentiment, though. Unfortunately, I suspect you’ll become intimately familiar with it, as well.”

“With the pillow?” Shepard huffed, amused.  _ “Oh _ my…”

“Now who’s deflecting?” he gently teased. The other shifter huffed again. “I mean, it wouldn’t surprise me if that’s what some people think we do in our spare time, since they compare us to dogs and all,” Kaidan chuckled. “Ass.” He gently pushed Shepard’s shoulder and received a snort for his trouble.

“I prefer takin’ a longer shower, myself.” The omega’s voice was tired but sly, the last of the tension easing away on the tides of the amicable joking they were doing. Kaidan could tell Shepard was more than likely going to slip off to sleep again in the next fifteen minutes. When he pressed the mental connection, he felt the quiet, exhaustion, the barest thread of contentment, and warmth cocooning the other shifter and knew from the past few days those combined were a signal that Mark was settling down. Only in the past day had it started happening less. “Speakin’ of which, when’s the last time you actually showered?”

Kaidan chuckled again at that. “While you were in surgery.”

“That was two days ago.” 

“Mmhm. And I haven’t done anything super strenuous or anything to make me super dirty or sweaty since then. Though it  _ is _ on my list of things to do tonight when I get home,” he conceded. "Because I _am_ actually going home tonight. I have a spider plant that needs attention." Shepard’s eyes were drifting closed and Kaidan kept his wrist on the pillow, noting the other shifter was tilting his head to keep his nose close to Kaidan’s skin. There were scent glands all shifters had on their pulse points, and it was seen as ‘rude’ to be blatant about seeking them out in public, but Shepard’s room was private and he didn’t know any better, besides. Kaidan could let it slide for now. Warm, rhythmic puffs of air on his wrist were soothing, besides, as the omega in the bed drifted off to sleep.

As the omega slept, he decided he’d stay the night to keep the pack scent in the room. It wouldn’t hurt anything, and he could wash up well enough in the bathroom attached to the room. Making sure Shepard had support was more important than anything else.


End file.
